Careers In Fashion

Want A Job In Fashion?

Corey Kelly, The Stylist

AM: How did you start your career in fashion?Corey Kelly (CK): I originally moved to New York City to pursue a fashion modeling career. But I’ve always known that I wanted to work behind the scenes as a fashion editor/stylist. While my modeling agency sent me out on castings, I worked as a sales associate at Polo Ralph Lauren. The experience I had there was special because, on a daily basis, I was exposed to an important circle of influential people who worked in fashion and other industries. One of my clients at the store happened to be a wonderful married couple who introduced me to their close friend who was an editor at Men’s Vogue at the time. I remember I was extremely interested in working as an intern within the magazine’s fashion department. I knew if I landed an internship with such an important title it would eventually lead to another opportunity. Fortunately, after interviewing with Men’s Vogue’s fashion department, I landed an internship. I sacrificed a lot of my time then, since I literally worked seven days a week. I worked three days a week at Men’s Vogue without pay and four days at Ralph Lauren, which was my primary source of income. I did this for months and months until I landed a position at Style.com to assist Candy Pratts Price, the site’s former executive fashion director.

AM: What’s a risk that you took when you started your career in fashion?CK: Being laid off was the biggest risk I took during my career that I never had any control over. Near the end of my stint as a fashion research assistant at Style.com, my division was downsized due to the economic recession. It was such a scary moment in time because I had never experienced the loss of a job before. On the bright side, being laid off really pushed me to be creative and utilize the experience and connections I had gained.

After what seemed to be endless emails and phone calls, I was able to find work as a freelance fashion assistant at WSJ [the magazine from The Wall Street Journal], contribute as a fashion writer for this very site [AskMen], work as a collection coordinator with Dizon, Inc., a well-known fashion production company, on many major shows during New York Fashion Week, found steady work assisting a few major fashion stylists, and, surprisingly, found myself working with Candy again at none other than Vogue.com.

While working with many of these companies, I was able to break out on my own and develop my portfolio. If you want to be a fashion stylist, you need to have something that showcases your work. When you’re fresh and new in the industry, you always need to be updating your portfolio. This is something I take seriously because your portfolio is a reflection of your creative vision. There have been times earlier in my career when I’ve submitted tests from my portfolio to publications and they’ve surprisingly ran them as full-on editorials. You have to take chances and, I think, for me, being laid off shook things up and made me push a lot harder.

AM: What are some non-glamorous skills required in your field?CK: Ambition, experience and a vision. You don’t have to go to college to become a fashion stylist. I certainly never did. The education comes from the experience you receive through interning and assisting fashion editors at publications and/or freelance fashion stylists. This experience pays off because you learn the way the business works, who the key players are, etc. I honestly believe amazing experience trumps a college education in this line of work — something people definitely notice in this industry.

Secondly, you need to be ambitious because a lot of people don’t understand the amount of legwork and running around that is involved with styling. They think it's like playing with Barbie dolls and dressing models and celebrities. About 85% of the job is exhaustive: sample-trafficking and communicating with showrooms and fashion publicists, hoping you get your requested samples for your shoot, which can actually be quite a headache. It’s funny because by the time you're ready to put together looks, you’re exhausted.

AM: How do you see your specific field within the industry evolving in the next five years?CK: I see the web playing a major role — something that’s already happening. Magazines and retailers need an online presence, and this is creating something new and exciting for fashion stylists. Before the internet, fashion stylists worked primarily on fashion editorials and advertising campaigns seen in print publications. But now a lot of that work is moving online thanks to e-commerce and online media.

AM: What are some resources you recommend looking to for someone wanting to start a career in fashion?CK: The No. 1 resource for anyone interested in becoming a fashion stylist is to seek opportunities to intern and/or assist an important name. I've never met a successful fashion stylist who just happened to become a success out of the blue. You have to really be passionate about what it is you're working toward because working in a fashion closet at a very popular magazine is a lot of work. I remember getting the shock of my life when I started working as an intern at Men's Vogue. Not because it was a bad place to work, but because I didn't know about the amount of work and long hours you have to put in. I've seen my fair share of interns working at fashion magazines with bloated egos who barely lift a pinky because they think that’s what fashion is all about. But it's funny to see how long they last.

Thinking of starting a career in fashion as a writer? Meet Joshua Linam of LookBooks.com next...